Latest From California Healthline:
California Healthline Original Stories
Jails And Prisons Spring Thousands To Prevent Coronavirus Outbreaks
As wardens across the country grapple with COVID-19 outbreaks, inmates are being released to prevent widespread contagion in overcrowded prisons. (Mark Kreidler, )
California To Give Aid To Immigrants Living In Country Illegally Who Have Been Hurt By Coronavirus: Gov. Gavin Newsom said today the state is partnering with philanthropic groups to provide disaster relief to undocumented immigrants affected by the coronavirus who have been left out of other pandemic assistance programs. Ten percent of California’s workforce is undocumented, Newsom said, and they are not eligible for unemployment insurance or aid through the federal stimulus package. The new $125 million Disaster Relief Fund will include $75 million in taxpayer funds and $50 million in philanthropic contributions to help undocumented workers affected by coronavirus secure a one-time payment of up to $500 per person or $1,000 per household. “We feel a deep sense of gratitude for people who are in fear of deportation but are still addressing the essential needs of tens of millions of Californians,” Newsom said, pointing out that many work in essential sectors like health care, agriculture, food, manufacturing and construction. Read more from Ana B. Ibarra of CalMatters and Taryn Luna, Patrick McGreevy and John Myers of the Los Angeles Times.
Cautious Optimism On California’s Curve Starts Taking Over Dire Predictions, But Experts Continue To Stress Social Distancing: It was less than a month ago, on March 18, that Gov. Gavin Newsom wrote a letter to President Donald Trump saying that 25.5 million Californians would be infected within eight weeks. And on April 7, Mark Ghaly, California’s secretary of Health and Human Services, said he believed the state would would need at least an additional 15,000 ventilators to handle the crisis, which he predicted would peak in May or June. But by Friday, Ghaly’s comments were far less alarming. “Any peak, when it comes, will probably not be significantly higher than today on ICU hospitalizations and overall hospitalizations because we have done all the right things on physical distancing and staying at home,” he said. Read more from Joe Mozingo, James Rainey and Nathan Fenno, of the Los Angeles Times.
In related news from the Los Angeles Times: L.A. County Reports 42 More Coronavirus Deaths, A New Single-Day High
Alameda County District Attorney Office Investigating Nursing Facility Where 13 Residents Have Died: Gateway Care & Rehabilitation Center has come under blistering scrutiny over the past week amid reports of understaffed nursing, symptomatic employees being pressured to report to work and families being left in the dark about about the severity of the outbreak. Civil rights attorneys John Burris and Adante Pointer, who represent the family of one of the victims, called for a criminal investigation on Monday into the center and have filed a complaint with the state Department of Public Health. If the allegations against Gateway are true, they said, their actions could amount to elder abuse. Read more from Megan Cassidy of the San Francisco Chronicle and Matt Hamilton of the Los Angeles Times.
Below, check out the full round-up of California Healthline original stories, state coverage and the best of the rest of the national news for the day.
More News From Across The State
San Francisco Chronicle:
Study Suggests California Has 10 Times More Coronavirus Cases Than Reported. Local Experts Disagree
A new study estimates that as many as 270,000 Californians are infected with the coronavirus, more than 10 times the number reported, and that New York is much worse off than even the most pessimistic disease trackers believe. The 61-page report appears to bolster the long-held belief by medical specialists that there is a huge population of untested virus carriers who could be infecting others, but Bay Area epidemiologists are skeptical that the infection rate could be as high as the authors predict. (Fimrite, 4/15)
San Francisco Chronicle:
SF To Use Contact Tracing To Alert Bay Area Residents Exposed To The Coronavirus
San Francisco unveiled a public health outreach plan Wednesday meant to help the city quickly test and identify people newly infected with the coronavirus, and to track down anyone they may have had contact with who could also become ill. The program is meant to augment the city’s contact tracing efforts, which are a long-standing tool of public health to battle infectious disease outbreaks. (Said and Allday, 4/15)
San Francisco Chronicle:
State And Counties Slow To Follow Sonoma’s Lead On Face Coverings
Even as New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Wednesday issued a statewide executive order mandating people to wear a mask or face covering when out in public, neither California Gov. Gavin Newsom nor San Francisco Mayor London Breed was willing to tighten face mask restrictions beyond asking people to cover their faces when out in public. In a briefing, Breed referenced the 1918 Spanish flu epidemic and the requirement for the populace to wear face masks in order to finally defeat it. “We need to look at what has happened in history,” she said. “Now is not the time to let up and get comfortable.” (Whiting, 4/15)
San Francisco Chronicle:
CDC Report Reveals How Coronavirus Spread From Patient To Health Care Workers In Solano County
A woman with COVID-19 at a Solano County hospital — the nation’s first case from an unknown source — exposed 121 health workers to the coronavirus, yet only three got the disease, a new study of the February case reveals. All three had been in close contact for about two hours with the patient, and two had no protective gear, according to the report published Tuesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Those workers also examined the patient and performed treatments that involved close contact, such as placing her on a breathing machine. (Moench, 4/16)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Trash Bag-Wearing Oakland Nurse’s Firing Raises Questions Over Coronavirus Protections
An Oakland nurse who wore a trash bag as protective equipment while at work has been fired, highlighting growing tensions at hospitals over allocations of masks, gowns and other gear as health systems stock up for an expected surge in patients infected with the coronavirus. A photo of Saber Alaoui, a nurse in the telemetry unit at Highland Hospital in Oakland, drew widespread attention after it circulated on social media in recent weeks. Alaoui believes he was fired in retaliation after his union representative posted the photo on Twitter in late March in a move to highlight the need for proper protective equipment at the hospital. (DiFeliciantonio, 4/15)
Sacramento Bee:
Prison Reforms In California Could Provide Permanent Relief To Millions
Earlier this month, in response to grave threats posed by the spread of COVID-19, California officials halted admissions into state prisons and revealed plans to quickly release 3,500 people. Within a matter of weeks, our state’s prison population will likely decline by 10,000 people, representing the fastest decline in California history and the largest in the nation. The Newsom administration’s important actions to stop the spread in prisons will save lives. What happens in the justice system next is crucial: It could be the difference between temporary relief for thousands and permanent relief for millions. (Anderson, 4/15)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Coronavirus Outbreak: 13 Bay Area Health Officers Discussing Which Activities To Reopen May 4
Top health officials in the Bay Area and nearby counties are working on plans to relax shelter-in-place orders next month for 7 million people stretching from Napa to Monterey, but the new order would probably apply only to outdoor activities, officials said Wednesday. The plan, being hashed out by the Association of Bay Area Health Officers, an organization of county and city health directors, is to loosen restrictions on May 4 on lower-risk activities in 13 jurisdictions, including San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose. (Fimrite, 4/15)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Charts Show What The Coronavirus ‘Curve’ Looks Like For Bay Area Counties Now
Compared to coronavirus hot spots across the country, the Bay Area seems to have made progress on “flattening the curve” after imposing early social distancing rules. But what do the data show now?The Chronicle took a deeper look at local case counts to examine what the “coronavirus curve” looks like for the five largest Bay Area counties. We plotted the average number of cases reported in each county over seven-day spans dating back to the beginning of March. (Hwang and Massa, 4/16)
Bay Area News Group:
Coronavirus: Stunning Numbers Behind Bay Area's Lockdown
Turn back the clock and nobody would believe what we have witnessed in the last month — 815 Californians losing their lives, another 2 million-plus losing their jobs, 6 million kids suddenly going to school online. All because of a virus we’d never heard of four months ago. (Woolfolk, 4/16)
Sacramento Bee:
Coronavirus CA: Cops Step Up Enforcement Of ‘Stay At Home’ Order
Sacramento County’s law enforcement agencies jointly announced Wednesday they would step up enforcement of the state and county orders to stay at home, and begin charging “blatant” violators with misdemeanors that carry a penalty of a fine or possible jail time. “While education continues to be the primary focus of all agencies when it comes to violations of the health order, law enforcement agencies in Sacramento County will now also take enforcement action on violations of the public health order that clearly put the health and safety of our communities in jeopardy,” the news release by the Sacramento Police Department said. (Sullivan, 4/15)
Sacramento Bee:
Sacramento County Coronavirus Drive-Thru Testing Under Capacity
More than three weeks ago, Sacramento County opened up its first public drive-through coronavirus testing site at Cal Expo with the promise of testing hundreds of people each day. But nurses and doctors running the site have seen fewer and fewer patients showing up to appointments secured through Verily, the private clinical research company helping operate the testing in coordination with state and local officials. (Yoon-Hendricks, 4/16)
San Francisco Chronicle:
SF Supervisors Tire Of Bowing To Mayor On Coronavirus Issue, Take Action Themselves
For weeks, members of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors haggled with Mayor London Breed’s office over how many hotel rooms the city should lease for the homeless during the coronavirus outbreak — and who should be allowed to occupy them. Recognizing the importance of keeping an appearance of City Hall unity before a jittery public, the supervisors involved said they were careful early in the crisis not to criticize the mayor’s plans. Instead, they negotiated privately, trying to persuade the mayor to lease hundreds more hotel rooms than her departments planned to and loosen the requirements for which homeless people could move into them. (Thadani, 4/16)
San Francisco Chronicle:
On The Bright Side: UC Berkeley Lab Cranking Out Home-Brewed Hand Sanitizer
Hundreds of gallons of home-brewed hand sanitizer are bubbling out of the UC Berkeley biology labs, the same pungent, test-tube-filled rooms where students usually focus on good grades instead of good deeds. With classes canceled and the teaching labs eerily empty, two Cal students decided to do what a handful of whiskey distillers and beer brewers have already done — use idled facilities to produce badly needed hand sanitizer. (Rubenstein, 4/16)
Sacramento Bee:
Blacks, Pacific Islanders Die At High Rate
Black Californians make up 6 percent of the state’s population, but represent 12 percent of those who have died from the coronavirus, according to data released Wednesday by the California Department of Public Health. The agency has statistics on race and ethnicity for 87 percent of deaths and 65 percent of cases of COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the coronavirus. California has 24,424 confirmed cases of the respiratory illness and 821 deaths as of Tuesday, according to CDPH. The statistics paint a bleak picture for African Americans since it appears that their illnesses are being diagnosed at a rate matching their representation in the population, but are dying at disproportionate rates. (Anderson, 4/16)
Fresno Bee:
Fresno Sends Half Its Emergency Coronavirus Beds To San Diego
The Fresno convention center lost more than half its emergency hospital beds this week as federal authorities shuffle medical supplies around the nation to combat coronavirus hotspots, county officials told The Bee. But county officials say they will backfill the exhibit hall with a reserve of local beds already on hand. (Tobias, 4/15)
Fresno Bee:
Merced County Homeless Fund Shelters Needy During Coronavirus
Officials reported during Tuesday’s Merced County Board of Supervisors meeting that the county is devoting $3.5 million to help care for — and shelter — the homeless population due to the coronavirus pandemic. As of Wednesday morning, the number of confirmed coronavirus cases rose to 76, up from 74 the previous evening, according to County Public Health. Recoveries also rose by two to 26. Later Wednesday afternoon, those numbers were updated to 78 confirmed cases. (Lauten-Scrivner, 4/15)
Fresno Bee:
Fresno Mayor Accused Of Being Authoritarian In Pandemic
The quotes were tucked at the end of a story by Bee staff writer Brianna Calix last Friday outlining Fresno Mayor Lee Brand’s latest order for residents to shelter at home until May 6 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Fresno City Councilman Garry Bredefeld was upset over the order, and criticized Brand for being heavy handed and “authoritarian.” (Weber, 4/16)
Fresno Bee:
Coronavirus Uptick In Fresno CA Means More Social Distancing
Fresno County reported 14 additional coronavirus cases on Wednesday, bringing the county’s total case number to 265. Most of Fresno’s cases were acquired through community spread and travel, according to county data. (Calix, 4/15)
Sacramento Bee:
Crisis Chaplain Leads Team To New York For Coronavirus Fight
A Sacramento woman is in New York with a crisis intervention team sent to help weary healthcare workers fight feelings of despair on the front lines of the fight against the coronavirus pandemic. Crisis chaplain Julie Bevers and her team from the 10-33 Foundation are there to provide emotional and mental health support to thousands of medical professionals who came from all over the country to help New York hospitals treat patients. The foundation’s services are desperately needed in a state with over 10,000 COVID-19 deaths, more than any nation outside the United States. (Anderson, 4/15)
Sacramento Bee:
Coronavirus Shutdown Throws CA Census Outreach Into Disarray
No state has wagered as much on the outcome of the 2020 census than California, which had planned to spend as much as $187 million to ensure an accurate count. That plan was staked — at least in part — on the very thing that is now effectively prohibited: human contact. (Finch II, 4/16)